road trip: colorado

with iced coffee, father john misty, and salt and vinegar pringles in the cup holder, hannah and i set out last weekend, for colorado. side note: i am a wimp when i have to drive anywhere further than 100 miles, but this 10-hour road trip did not break my spirit, so....growth? also the cute rental car manager gave us an upgrade, so our car started with a button and had blind-spot alerts. aka i'm obvs almost 30 because i was way too hype about that. i meant to take a picture of the car, but totally forgot. it was a nissan. thanks, ryan.

we got to colorado just in time to watch the sun set over the rockies, listening to the best of lauryn hill and the beastie boys. ("the beastie boys....do you know them...?" --hannah) we also attempted to learn all the words to shoop by salt-n-pepa, (we came really close).

the next morning, we got an early start and set out for the mountains. we were 1 of about a thousand other cars there. subies for days!!

let's talk about how unprepared i was for such a stark change in elevation. after miles and miles of windy mountain roads, we decided to park and hike. hannah picked an easy trail for us: "it's flat" she said. "no inclines....so it won't be hard", she said. little did i know that hiking a regular trail at 11,000+ feet would feel like running up 20 flights of stairs, because elevation. you guys. MY LUNGS. remember that episode of spongebob where sandy tries to hold her breath under water and her lungs just burst and die? basically me. and anything that has to do with suffocation or the inability to breathe scares the crap out of me, so i was pushed to my limit. small waves of panic came over me as i tried to catch my breath, and at one point i literally thought, "oh. this must be where i die. and i'm ok with that, as long as i can just lay down right here."

my only exhiliration was that it was about 50 degrees in the mountains, so it wasn't hot, and um hi did i mention it was 50 degrees.......in summer?? i love colorado. meanwhile, hannah was comfortably breathing through her nose, like a regular human, and she graciously paused when i paused...which was often.

what can she say? hiking is her jam and her lungs are resilient.

here's a picture i pretended to take when in reality i just stopped because my lungs were truly dead.

i'd never been to the mountains before, so mild suffocation aside, it was totally worth it. also, any excuse to wear leggings and a pullover and i'm there. (bc 50 degrees, guys!) we found a real life babbling brook (not the fake ones you find in front of apartment buildings!) so we climbed down the rocky edge (a tiny bit horrifying) and put our feet in. it was icy mountain water and so much colder than i thought it would be, so i just put one foot in. i was also afraid of stepping on sharp rocks, and of falling into the icy water, from avoiding said sharp rocks. can you tell i love nature?

hannah found my one foot commitment hilarious.

a few hours later, it was time for the entire reason we were there--murder. we were mostly just really really really excited to see karen. hannah and i determined that there are 2 types of murderinos. there's the kind that are like...that girl in your high school science class who is totally weird, and just talks a lot about how weird she is. then there are the low-key murderinos who wear a healthy amount of black, and are just there to see karen. we are the latter.

i'm certain i only remember 40% of of the show because my brain was like, "i'm rebelling from lack of oxygen." i do remember georgia saying she had an oxygen tank backstage, (why didn't i think of that??) and in a hilarious moment of excitement, one lady behind us saw a creepy guy and said, "a serial killer! right among us!! there he is!!!" (murderinos are always doing the most, you guys.) the show was so fun, and the only blight was the drunk girl in front of us who was all over her boyfriend, who was legit just trying to listen to the show. they were so distracting, but i would not let them steal my joy. i came to hear murders, darn it. also, the girl next to me ripped them a new one at the end of the show, so justice prevailed.

the next day we were the walking dead. we needed brunch and a chill hang, so we went to snooze (and ordered the pancake flight) and met up with my dearest buns, susan & her husband, will. they drove an hour to come see me for a few hours, and it made my entire trip!! this would be the last time to see them before i move away (softsob). i love them to deathhhh!! (can we talk about how will is looking at susan in this picture? because i love it, a lot.)

the rest of the trip was pretty chill from then on, and we mostly just relaxed. we did, however come across a make-shift drive-in movie and got in for free (hootie hoo!!) and won a gift bag of crap we didn't use, but much appreciated. colorado was such a magnificent treat, and i wish we could've stayed a little longer! i wanna come back real soon.